How Do You Promote a Self-Published Book?
10 Vital Reminders for a Successful Book Launch!
Having self-published more than ten books, I know how difficult it is to find the best way to market your book. This is especially true if you have a limited budget. If you’re like me, you may have done everything yourself and you don’t have as much money for ads just like other publishers.
But having limited resources doesn’t mean you can’t have unlimited ways to promote your book. After accomplishing the great task of writing, editing, revising and re-editing your book for the nth time, I’m certain that you have it in you to begin the challenging task of selling it!
In this article, let me provide you some of the ways you could look into when promoting your self-published book:
1. Have you checked your book cover?
Is you book cover attractive enough to catch the interest of readers? Remember that the cover is one of the very first things your potential readers would ever see.
What impression would your book cover make? Would it make your book look credible and professional?
Compare your cover to those from bestsellers in a similar genre. Would they somehow blend in? What fonts have you used? What overall impact does your book cover create?
If your cover is not good, it won’t even stand the chance of being noticed for readers to know more about your book.
2. What’s your title?
The title is similar to your book cover. It’s one of the very first things your potential readers would see.
Is your title interesting enough? Does it give enough information for people to know what your book is all about?
Your title shouldn’t be so generic that it’s forgettable. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be so unique that people couldn’t relate to it anymore. Make it such that it stands out but also easy enough to remember.
3. Have you written a good book description?
A good description is both concise and informative. It should not be too long or filled with too much information that overwhelms the reader. But it should be enticing enough for the reader to want to learn more about your book.
If you have written fiction, you’d want to present a brief narrative about your plot and main characters. Would your readers be able to relate to your main protagonist? In what way?
Make your book description easy to scan for potential readers.
4. Do you have book reviews?
You don’t have to wait for your book to be published in order to have book reviews.
Even before your book launch, you can set a team of people to help you gather some reviews. It would be better if these reviewers are also bloggers or social media influencers who can help spread the news about your book.
Book reviews add credibility for your book. It could be the crucial factor that would help people to decide whether to buy your book or not.
5. Can you review your book again?
I know we’ve already mentioned about editing your work. But just so that you didn’t miss anything, how about checking it again?
Is your book worth the money people are going to pay for it? What would your potential readers say about the book? Can you think of some possible criticisms other people may have about it?
If you’re not sure, maybe you can hire beta readers to give you some feedback. Beta readers are not like book reviewers who give their comments after your book has already been published. They are there instead even before you finalize your book’s publication.
They provide you with private feedback that can help you polish your book. While your family and friends may be hesitant to give any negative comments to you, beta readers can speak the truth that you need to hear before you make your book available for the whole world to read and judge.
If you need one now, you can hire me as your beta reader.
6. How’s your social media presence?
You can start creating your social media channels for your book even before you finish writing it!
This not only helps you gain more time to increase your number of followers, but also helps you connect with potential readers earlier.
I began investing time and effort growing my Facebook page and now it already has 11,000 followers. Here, I share links to my book “Poems of Love and Letting Go” as well as “Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief”.
7. Have you maximized your Amazon book page?
Many self-publishers use Amazon as a platform to sell their books. If you are one of them, you should check whether you have maximized your Amazon book page.
What does it mean that you have maximized it?
For one thing, you should put a good book description with relevant keywords for your target readers. You should also include some good book reviews under the Editorial Reviews section of your book page. These are not customer reviews but book reviews from professional reviewers and bloggers which could include those from Kirkus or Reedsy Discovery. It can also include peer reviews from fellow writers.
One extra step is to add Amazon A+ content that can gather more interest as well as credibility for your book.
You can read my article below for more information about this section of your book page.
8. Have you started a Newsletter subscription like Substack?
It is very important to have a steady set of subscribers when promoting your book. Remember that marketing is an ongoing process.
By continuously posting in your Newsletter, you build a relationship with subscribers who can trust you and look forward to your book.
If you don’t want to pay for Newsletter services like Aweber or ConvertKit, you can start one free today at Substack!
9. Have you joined relevant Facebook groups?
Joining Facebook groups for writers is one way to find other potential readers for your book. There are also groups looking for good book recommendations and you can take the opportunity to promote your book there for free!
Just be sure that you read the rules and you don’t post spam or other links not allowed by the community.
Read the posts of others as well and try to help other authors like yourself.
10. Have you considered book promotion tools to offer your book for free?
One good way to gain more exposure for your book is to offer it for free!
By offering your book for free for a limited time, you get the following benefits:
You get more readers. These readers can be among your first batch of book reviewers. They can also share their feedback to their friends and social media followers. The more people who know about your book, the more chances also for sales later on.
If you are offering a book series, these readers are potential buyers for your other books in the series.
If you include a link of your Newsletter within your free book copies, you also get the chance of getting more subscribers.
Offering your books for free or at a discount can make them eligible for submission to several book promo sites like BookBub, Freebooksy and Awesome Gang. These sites have the traffic you need to make your book even more available for more readers!
Final thoughts
It’s not always easy at the beginning to find the right channels for your book promotion. But you can take each simple step you know and then grow your following from day to day.
You also don’t have to spend so much in advertising. You can try the above strategies for free and then see where you would like to focus your marketing efforts later on.
Be sure to subscribe to keep updated for more tips and strategies here at “Single Catholic Writer”.
You may also want to read:
Jocelyn Soriano works full-time as a Catholic writer to share the word of God and invite everyone to take refuge in God’s truth and love.
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